NEW RUSH NEAR WESTPORT.

Westport Times, Volume IV, Issue 638, 29 March 1870, Page 2

NEW RUSH NEAR WESTPORT.

ANOTHER LINE OF TERRACES OPENED.

Westport underwent yesterday the ancient and almost forgotten excitement attending a new rush. From midnight on Sunday, and until nightfall yesterday, the boatmen on the river were busily engaged conveying passengers from tho north shore to a secluded spot in the South Lagoon. A few of these were from the town, but the majority were from the Northern Terraces—Terrace men who, happening to be in town, took advantage of the opportunity of visiting the locality of the rush, or who, having received a hint from friends, travelled townwards from the Terraces during night. Rushes across rivers are often of a suspicious character. The general public do not always give the boating fraternity the credit of being supe/ior to the temptation of causing a little excitement when some of the current coin of the realm is likely to come their way. But this was not, in any equivocal sense, a boatman's rush. In its beginnings it was bona Jlde, and, so far as it has gone, it is of good report. It would hare been more of a rush but for the physically discouraging prcvalanco of relentless rain. It occurred thus. On the banks of the Lagoon, there are two agricultural leaseholders, Bradshaw and Penniall. Lately they and two Scotchmen who were more or less their mates have combined potato-grubbing with prospecting. As potato growers, they had an excellent crop, and as prospectors they got what they considered to be a very good " show." Both circumstances —the lifting of their potatoes and the procuring of these prospects —came together. The auriferous ground ran under their potato patch, and, before it should be rushed, they went to work to raise their crop. They then—so they say —purposed applying for a prospecting claim. This was confided to us on Friday last, on the understanding that,for a day or two, publicity should hot be given to the information until, the rights of the prospectors had been secured. In deference to that understanding, and until ground so easily accessible should be seen,we made no report of the then problematical circumstances. On Saturday, however, the matter got otherwise " blown," and a few visited the situation on Sunday, which, in digging, is a dies non. Observing the purpose of their visitors, the prospectors proceeded to the Terraces, and brought down a friend or two —among others, M'Masters, of the long tunnel at Giles Terrace. They were again on the ground before Monday morning, and from that time, in onofi, and twos, and greater groups, others crossed the river, and, after a trial washing in the prospecting holes, proceeded along the terrace formation of which the ground consists, " pegging out" as they went. Within the next few days the ground will be under trial more or les3 efficientlyas far down as Cape Foul wind, towards which the terrace extends. Some are satisfied and hopeful. Others put an indifferent value on the prospects. But the comparatively slight depth to sink, and the attraction of new ground, are inducements favorable to the district getting a thorough turning over, and in a few days the probable extent of the one lead which has been opened will be determined. At present the presumption is that there is payable but not very permanent work for a population of some hundreds. The prospects said to have been obtained by the prospectors are from a grain to a grain and a half to the dish. This is their own statement, and we believe it is under the mark. General report describes the prospects as from two to four grains to the dish. The contents of three dishes from the prospectors' claim were yesterday handed to the Warden, who took them to town, and had them washed at the Bank of New South Wales; and the result of the washing from three dishes was thirty grains, or one and a half dwts. of gold. The stripping, so far, has only been from two to six feet.- Tho wash is gravel and black sand, intermixed with rubies—its depth from three to four feet; its breadth from eight to ten feet. The gold is rough and scaly. The discovery of this new ground was thus made. Edward Bradshaw and Thomas Penniall have for upwards of two years held an agricultural lease of forty-seven acres. The ground is situated on a branch of the lagoon which runs up behind Packers' Point, and from that place it is not more than thirty chains distant. A blazed track already exists from Packers' Point to the Lagoon, and, by throwing a tree over the Lagoon, and forming a track thereto, the ground would be accessible iu a few minutes from the time of leaving the north beach of the Buller. By bee line, it is directly opposite Powell's store. Upon this ground, Bradshaw and his mate have been at work, clearing and burning the bush on a flat space at the foot of a terrace, and where a small creek flows into the Lagoon. Two years ago, in incidentally trying the ground for gold, they got a prospect of about a grain to the dish, but they did not think it worth the trouble of following up, and they went on with the falling and clearing. Subsequently they showed some prospects in town, but those to whom they were exhibited were unbelieving, and said the ground had been " salted." Last Spring, two men were induced to give the ground a trial, and they searched for layers of black sand, but,

coming on tho rough gravel of which the wash partially consists, they abandoned the attempt, and went away. Some weeks ago other two who had been at work iu the Wairau sheep, shearing, and who had come to the Coast on" the completion of their work, were recommended to set in. They did so, sinking a hole at the foot of the Terrace, and said they. " were satisfied with what thoy saw." They sunk another hole, and got the same prospects. Proceeding with their prospecting southward, they proved the existence of gold for a mile or more along the terrace towards the south-west, but as it got shallower jbj that direction, they preferred tho vicinity of Bradshaw's homestoad. They tried another hole towards the edge of the clearing, and got prospects of a grain to a grain and a half. They always got something, and usually sufficient to pay a man small wages with a cradle. Three grains to the dish were on rare occasions got, and it is possible that the run of gold, if not as a rule rich, is so in patches. They commenced cutting a tail race, to carry off the water by which, at a very small depth, they were impeded, when they were anticipated in any further work of prospecting by tho rush setting in. Where they were thus at work, the stripping is about four feet deep, but the depth of wash has no 1 : yet been ascertained. As a rule, the lead is reached as soon as rubies appear, and in one hole the wash is four feet thick. Prom the lie of the ground, the water, which is somewhat abundant, should be drained off without much difficulty during ordinary conditions of the lagoon, and either from the pakihis above or creeks adjacent sufficient water should be readily obtainable for washing or sluicing purposes.

The terrace stands not more than forty or fifty feet high, and is evidently the outline of a former sea beach—the latest of a series of ancient sea beaches which exist along this coast. By the prospectors it is said to extend apparently as far as Cape Foulwind, approaching closer to the present beach than at the Lagoon end, where a greater mass of river debris intervenes between it and the sea. It is, in fact, the sea-front face of the pakihis—the terrace which, whether auriferous or not, may be traced at the same level, on the north side of the Orawaiti, starting from Maloney's, now Mrs Hall's, public-house. It is not more heavily timber-covered than most parts of the country adjacent, the prevailing timber being birch and red pine. With timber thus abundant, with water accessible, and with " spuds " in galore on the ground, the first few claimholders should be sufficiently supplied with the means of sustaining life and work at a moderate cost; and the proximity of tho wliolo terrace to Westport is a circumstance which, apart from any extreme richness, should enable it to be worked at a much smaller cost than any of the terraces in the interior. Should it prove to be auriferous for any distance down the coast—and, as the diggers say, " it is a good long road to Charleston " —the discovery will be one of the most important that has been made in the neighborhood of Westport, as it is at present one of the most interesting. Of course, its extent and value are as yet a matter of speculation, but the situation of the ground, its superficial appearance, and its geological formation ail favor the supposition that a substantial addition has been made to the already developed diggings of this district.

The prospectors have meantime marked off a double claim, after consulting with the Warden, and it is expected that the Government will cancel their agricultural lease, allowing compensation to the leaseholders ia the event of the ground beiua; proved pavable and mined upon. The ordinaryway of adjusting such compensation is by arbitration. On each side of the prospectors, claims have been taped off, superficially including their cabages and potatoes, but these esculents will soon be raised and consumed if the ground prove otherwise profitable. Already business sites have been marked off, and a local habitation has been found for a branch of Brown's Camp Store. With the water-cai'riage of the Lagoon, sufficient facilities of approach to the ground already exist, but in the event of a population settling, it would certainly be a convenience to have a road for the short distance intervening between Packers' Point and what should be Point Pcnniall of the Lagoon Lead of Bradshaw Terrace.